Priest, scientist, social activist, and missionary, the Rev. Canon Wade Renn, 79, will retire from House of Prayer in Newark on June 29 after a 50-year ministry that has touched the lives of countless people. When asked what he cherishes most about his long and varied ministry, he answers without hesitation, “To have been called by God to be a domestic and foreign missionary of the Episcopal Church.” In 2005, at age 70, when not a few clergy have settled into less ambitious ministries, Renn founded a faith-based mission to the homeless in Montclair, providing shelter, food and showers for those in need. He remained president of the mission until 2012. It’s but one of many impressive accomplishments during a truly amazing life of service.
Born in Freeport, Long Island in 1935, Renn’s family relocated to New Jersey after World War II. Always an able scholar, he graduated with honors from Pleasantville High School in 1952, but at an even earlier age had begun attending the local Presbyterian church. He believed a vocational test would confirm his desire to become an engineer. “The only result indicated by the test was ministry,” he recalls, “which I ignored as being way beyond reason. I went my own way, thank you very much!”
His “own way” was to venture off to Lehigh University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics and began a career that included work with The Boeing Company and later with the Atomic Energy Commission. Somehow unsettled in his career choices, he returned to Lehigh to earn a master’s degree in Physics and almost pursued doctoral study. He came back instead to Washington to work for a Johns Hopkins University think tank doing research for what he now terms, “the Army's more nasty ideas.” As Renn told the The Montclair Times early this year, “I realized that most of the things I was involved in had to do with killing and destruction, and I came to realize that something was wrong with that picture.”
Having been moved to seek baptism during his undergraduate days at Lehigh, he became curious about an Episcopal church he passed by on his daily walk to work. It turned out to be the well-known Anglo-Catholic parish of St. Paul’s, “K” Street. He soon became a faithful parishioner and was confirmed shortly thereafter. He recalls, “It was at a service of Solemn Evensong and Benediction that I personally encountered the God who had been goading me to respond to His call from as far back as that vocational test result long ago. Finally capitulating, I got myself off to General Seminary in New York City.”
Here Renn says he found a vocation he “relished from the outset.” Continuing to evidence strong academic abilities, he graduated from seminary in 1964 while garnering prizes in Archeology and the Bible as well as Ecclesiastical History. In June 1964 he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Paul Moore, Jr., then Suffragan Bishop of Washington. Bishop Moore also ordained him to the priesthood the following January at Grace Church, Newark, where he had served his field placement while at General. So began his lifelong association with the Diocese of Newark. He went on to serve as a curate at Grace Church, having “benefited greatly from the mentoring of the rector, the Rev. Herbert Brown.”
While at General, however, Renn had been powerfully influenced by the witness of several visiting missionary bishops and had also taken several courses related to the church’s mission activities. “The thought stayed with me that I might well be called to serve in the mission field oversees,” he recalls. Things came together when he learned that St. Mark's Secondary School in Zambia was seeking someone to serve both as a chaplain and a science teacher. “Bingo!” Renn remembers saying to himself, “Here I would be asked to serve as priest and head of the science department. It seemed like the perfect ministry for me.”
The Rev. Canon Wade Renn on a return visit to St. Mark’s Secondary School in Zambia in 2003, talking to former student
Emmanuel Hachibuka and his wife. At the time this photo was taken, Emmanuel Hachibuka was serving as a Member of
the Zambian Parliament. PHOTO COURTESY THE REV. CANON WADE RENN
After his first tour in Africa, he was recruited by the Zambian government to become head of the science department at the Teachers Training College. Newly married, Renn returned to Zambia accompanied by his wife, Mary Ann Lewis, whom he had met at Grace Church. During his six-year ministry in Zambia, Renn also served as priest-in-charge at St. George's Anglican Parish and chaplain to the maximum security prison. It was also in Zambia that the couple’s first daughter was born.
The Rev. Canon Wade Renn and Mary Ann Renn on a return visit to St. George’s Church, Kabwe, Zambia in 2003.
PHOTO COURTESY THE REV. CANON WADE RENN
Returning to the US in 1973, Renn was soon called to become rector of Grace Church, Nutley, a congregation he served for 23 years. He recalls these as rewarding years with significant change. Part of that change was the 1979 Book of Common Prayer which replaced the 1928 version. Modern language and the new central position of the Eucharist challenged the practices of many congregations. This event had been preceded by the Church’s approval of the ordination of women and was soon followed by demands for the equal treatment of gay and lesbian persons by the Church. Renn supported these progressive developments by his preaching and his educational work in the congregation and as a member of Standing Committee. The congregation’s website highly commends his work as an educator. The years in Nutley also focused on youth by providing a dynamic mid-week youth program that ran for over 10 years including three hand bell choirs. In 1983 during his tenure at Grace Church, Renn was named Canterbury Scholar of the Diocese and later, Outstanding Priest of the Year.
Upon what he now calls his “first retirement” (from Grace Church, Nutley), Renn launched himself into the highly specialized ministry of interim priest. Congregations in the diocese where he ministered included Grace Church, Westwood; St. Andrew's, Lincoln Park; St. James', Ridgefield, St. Andrew's, Harrington Park; and St. Luke's, Montclair. The work of an interim allows congregations time for self-study and for determining what they truly need in terms of new leadership. It is demanding work to which Renn, as a senior priest, was able to bring much pastoral insight and sensitivity.
The Rev. Canon Wade Renn listening to the homeless in Montclair. PHOTO COURTESY THE REV. CANON WADE RENN
It was while serving at St. Luke's in Montclair that Renn became aware of the urgent needs of the homeless – particularly for shelter in the winter. With a characteristic can-do spirit, Renn founded the Montclair Emergency Services for the Homeless (MESH). The mission began when the weather got cold in 2005 and Renn noticed people sleeping in doorways around Montclair. MESH began by handing out sleeping bags to the homeless. Now it involves 17 places of worship which provide nutritious meals six days a week throughout the year and temporary shelter in freezing conditions.
After founding this critically important mission and serving five congregations as interim pastor, one might have thought a “second retirement” would have been Wade Renn’s next move. But it was at this time that Newark’s House of Prayer needed a supply priest and Renn responded to the call. This year he celebrates seven years as Missionary Priest to this historic urban congregation.
The Rev. Canon Wade Renn praying with the people at House of Prayer in Newark.
PHOTO COURTESY THE REV. CANON WADE RENN
With retirement prompted only by his vision being increasingly compromised by glaucoma, Renn says, “I will wait upon the Lord to direct me. In the meantime I will continue making showers available to the homeless at the Montclair Citadel of the Salvation Army – an extension of MESH.” He also plans to undertake a “pilgrimage” to preach in the various congregations in which he served and “to thank them for their contribution to my ongoing spiritual development.”
While it may be billed as a retirement, anyone who knows Wade Renn realizes his ongoing ministry in our diocese will continue to benefit the least among us and to serve as a singular example of Christian service and priestly ministry.
The Rev. Canon Wade Renn and Mary Ann Renn receiving the Hegg Lifetime Achievement Award from
the Rt. Rev. Mark M. Beckwith, 10th Bishop of Newark, on June 22, 2014. NINA NICHOLSON PHOTO
